Moscow is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The architecture is very unique outside of Eastern Europe. Then add some Christmas lights to it? Absolutely stunning. If you haven’t see my last post yet, absolutely check it out for some of the most stunning churches and light displays.

Day 4

This day of our trip was a “big religious holiday.” I put it in quotes because my mom says that almost every other day. Big religious holidays are a regular thing in Russia. This religious holiday in particular is every January 19th, the day Christ was baptized. You might know it as Epiphany or Baptism Day, but in Russia, it’s called Krescheniye. It’s famously the day when Russians line up to take a dip in an ice hole. It’s believed that on this day, the natural springs water is holy. If dipping your whole body into a frozen lake isn’t your thing, you can do what we did. Go to church and drink the holy water.

We went to the Church of St. Nicholas in Khamovniki. It might be my second favorite church in Moscow. After St. Basil’s in Red Square, of course. The design is beautiful and I love the red and green Christmas colors. Inside, the church had large gold drink dispensers where everyone was getting the holy water. Think of a vintage Apothecary beverage dispenser, but as tall as you. People came to church with bottles and jugs, so they could use/drink the water until the next Krescheniye.

After church, we took the subway to the Crimean Bridge and walked across to go to Gorky Park. This was one of the things I was most excited to see while in Moscow for Christmas. Not for the bridge or the park, even though they’re both great, but the ice sculptures.

I remember being 7 years old, walking through a square or park at night, watching maybe a hundred ice sculptures being made. It was beautiful, exciting, and a magical memory. I’m not sure now if I was in the Red Square or Gorky Park when this happened. But I told my mom I wanted to see those ice sculptures again. I didn’t get to watch them being carved like when I was 7, but I was happy I got to at least see them again, in Moscow, around Christmas, like I did as a child.

After looking at the ice sculptures for a bit, we got a hot coffee and walked around the park to see more Christmas lights. It was very cold, though, so we didn’t walk through the entire park.

Day 5

The next day, my mom, babushka, and I went all the way to the Tekhnopark subway station in the south of Moscow. My mom saw a new theme park on the news, so we decided to check it out while we were in Moscow. I didn’t know what to expect, but when we got there, all I could think about was the, “It’s a Small World,” song and ride at the Disneyland Park in California. The outside looked like a Disney castle. Inside was a mall with a theme park in the back.

The mall was very clean and not busy at all. Maybe because it was a Wednesday and most people wait to go on the weekends with their kids. I actually enjoyed the emptiness, but it was weird to see such a large, nice-looking mall, with hardly anyone around. My favorite part of the mall was the international section will all the buildings that looked like different places around the world. But they were actual stores on the inside, like H&M and Zara. Some of the stores and restaurants are ones me have in every mall in the U.S. so they weren’t a big deal to me, but probably cool to try if you’ve never been to The States.

The theme park, called Dream Island, is the main attraction and why everyone goes here, but I ended up not going instead the amusement park. My mom was sore from walking around the mall and I didn’t want to go into a kids theme park alone. What was I going to do? Go on rides alone? Just look at the rides? I’m also not too sure if the rides are only for small children or all ages. Either way, it wouldn’t be fun to go in alone.

Day 6

The next evening, we decided to visit Arbat Street in the Arbat District. It’s another shopping street, and one of the oldest streets in Moscow, that we wanted to see decorated for Christmas. It’s a popular place to buy souvenirs too. Although, the souvenirs on this street will be a little more expense than the markets. I wouldn’t say this is a MUST-see street in Moscow during the holidays, but it is close to the red square, and has LOTS of souvenirs and Russian candy to buy for your friends back home. Even if you don’t need souvenirs, the one’s in these shops are extravagant and fun to look through.

Sorry it’s taken me a month to write this post after publishing the last one. I have one more post about Moscow that I will try to get up. Hopefully quicker than this one!

-Ayla♥

P.S. If any of you have been to Amsterdam, I would love some recommendations or leave me a link to your old posts. I’m going this Spring.